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IsraelMFA's photostream

(ISTANBUL) - Anyone still unconvinced of the violence perpetrated against IDF assailants of the Mavi Marmara might do well to view the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s flickr photostream.

Of particular interest is the photo set entitled “Weapons found on Mavi Marmara”, a set of 29 images of such things as keffiyehs, kitchen knives, construction tools, a flashlight, a metal pail, bottles of water, marbles, and binoculars.

In case flickr visitors are not sufficiently thrown off by the description of the photo set as comprising items “from between 07 Feb 2006 & 07 Jun 2010”, the following two photographs of “slingshots used to attack Israeli soldiers” were both uploaded on June 3, 2010, which is also the date the second photograph was purportedly taken. The details specified for the second photo may however simply be a result of visitor comments on the first, calling attention to the fact that it was taken on February 7, 2006.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry does not deign to explain whether Hezbollah always signs its slingshots in English. That the conflicting dates on the photographs have not been rectified is meanwhile evidence of Israel’s increasingly sloppy Hasbara efforts, although the Foreign Ministry may yet take advantage of the former date to claim that Israeli children who autographed missiles destined for Lebanese villages during the July War were simply responding to Hezbollah’s behavior.

As for other documented components of the arsenal on board the Turkish humanitarian aid vessel, these include canisters of Jenix pepper spray bearing the label “Self Defence” and packaged along with illustrations of situations in which the spray might come in handy, such as against bears or thieves. Israeli logic would have us believe, of course, that self defense in this case is merely a disguise for anti-Semitic aggression, which still does not account for why the aggressors did not disguise the Hezbollah slingshots by labeling them “Children’s Toy”.

Born in Washington, DC, in 1982, Belén earned her bachelor's degree with a concentration in political science from Columbia University in New York City. Her diverse background of worldwide experiences, created a fantastic writer; one whose work we are extremely happy to share with Salem-News.com viewers. You can contact Belén at: belengarciabernal@gmail.com